Team Russia beat the living tar out of Team USA at World Championships today with a final score of 6-1. Washington Capitals forwards Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored goals, while Hershey Bears goalie Pierre McGuireDavid Leggio came on in relief of Tim Thomas in the second period.

Doug Johnson is back to amuse and torment. You know him as one-half of the PuckBuddys. The first one to get them to 3K Twitter follows probably wins a car or something.

The Morning Skate: Gentle readers, before we [CENSORED] all over our Bruins friends, let us pause a moment, as you scramble in blind panic preparing for snow that will never, ever come again, to consider the hazards of making predictions. Especially about the Caps.

For example, if I predict no snow Wednesday, it’s gonna get all crazy 20″ up in here. Conversely, I stone cold guarantee that if I dash to the store today to buy a terror shovel, we will be mopping our brows and sipping Mint Juleps on our verandas by Friday. The point is: predictions can go so wrong. Britain’s Lord Kelvin (he of Downton Abbey, we guess?) said heavier-than-air machines could never fly. Harry Warner said no-one would pay for talkies. The Skipper predicted a three-hour tour. Boom.

Jason Chimera dropped the puck to John Carlson, who fired a shot that Matt Hendricks tipped in. Tyler Seguin dove to knock in a loose puck behind Braden Holtby to tie the game heading into the third period. The game went into overtime.

And then it happened. You knew it would. Mike Knuble crashed the net and Joel Ward swept in the rebound. Caps beat Bruins 2-1 (OT).

Way back in March when I was interviewing several people for my feature on Joe Beninati’s rookie card, Alex Carbajal, Panini’s License Acquisitions Manager and contributor to their trading card blog, forwarded me to a glorious blog post they had done earlier in the season.

The story goes like this: Tim Thomas was the cover boy of Panini’s 2011-12 Certified Hockey cards. When Thomas and the Bruins came to Dallas to take on the Stars in late December – close to Panini’s American Headquarters, Terry Hackler met Thomas at the hotel and they opened an entire box of cards. As Thomas went through a few packs, he shared stories about certain players that he pulled.

Well, lucky for us, he pulled a card of Alex Ovechkin and shared a story that might be of interest to you.

Coming into Game Five, Troy Brouwer — one of three players on the team to have a championship ring (Knuble, Aucoin) — had five career playoff goals in his career, including one in the Stanley Cup Finals.

He picked a great time for number six.

After the Capitals first power play unit struggled mightily to do anything productive in their shift on a late third period power play, off the bench jumped John Carlson, Mike Green, Marcus Johansson, Brooks Laich, and Brouwer. Unlike their cohorts, they kept it simple.

The Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins had split wins in each other’s cities. Saturday afternoon’s bout in Boston was the first of two games within 30 hours, and another example of how tight this series has been.

After a scoreless first, Alex Semin wristed the puck past Tim Thomas while Joe Corvo writhed in pain in the periphery. Jay Beagle sent a loose puck dribbling past Thomas to make it 2-0– the first time either team has had a two-goal lead all series. Dennis Seidenberg got some space from Ovechkin and beat Holtby near-side to get the Bruins on the scoreboard. Just a few seconds later, Marchand (with help from Peverley) pushed the puck through Holtby’s five-hole and tied the game.

And then…. in the third period…

KANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBLE!

Yes. Mike Knuble crashed the net to make it 3-2 for the Capitals. Johnny Boychuk tied it up while Dennis Wideman was in the penalty box. On the Brouwer Play, Troy Brouwer scored a brouwer play goal, his first brouwer play goal and the game-winner. Caps beat Bruins 4-3.

With 1:17 to go in the second period of Thursday’s win, Alex Semin gathered the puck at his customary spot along the side boards and looked to create some offense on the Capitals’ third power play of the night. As the Bruins defense sagged, Sasha skated in to the left dot and unleashed a 71 MPH wrist shot past Tim Thomas. Scoar!

Video of the game-winning tally is below, as well as a goal celebration that doesn’t involve any belly patting whatsoever.

Have you been off the grid for the last two days? Yeah? Okay, catching you up real quick: Caps fans taunted Tim Thomas with Obama signs, and then everyone and their moms wrote about it. Even The Huffington Post wrote about it, and they’re like the Ocean’s Eleven of the Internet: only stealing the good stuff!

And then on Tuesday, the Pardon The Interruption crew featuring former Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon addressed the taunting during their toss-up segment, WORD!